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Presenter: Hal Bookbinder

In 1880, fully 80% of our Jewish ancestors lived in Poland and Pale of Jewish Settlement in western Russia. We all know of the pogroms (organized violence) and mass exodus of our ancestors to points west over the next generation. This talk will provide background about the 120 years of the Pale from its formation in the late 18th century to its dissolution during the First World War. The speaker breaks the life of the Pale into six distinct periods which he designates as "Creation", "Containment", "Repression", "Enlightenment", "Pogroms" and "Chaos". The talk will provide some context to our ancestors` lives in the Pale and their decisions to leave everything they had known to make new lives in the West. (Ukraine, Poland, Bessarabia, Romania, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia)